In the project context, while I wouldn't say that plans are worthless as those are the actual evidence we have of planning, the key is the level of effort we spend on creating those and how blindly we follow them after creating them.
So long as we balance the effort spent against the value derived and remain open to the impact of changes, plans add value.
Actually it's "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." This quote is an oxymoron. If planning is "everything", presumably a plan would result from the planning. Saving Changes...
hahahaha ..... There is a say in the military world, that planning only last the first ten second on the battle field, I think ( just guessing ) that Eisenhower was trying to make an analogy.
The copyright on this quote is with prussian general Helmuth von Moltke. Saving Changes...
Phil DoyleSenior Project Manager| Orangebus (Capita)Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne And Wear, United Kingdom
“No Plan survives contact with the enemy / with reality” (pick your context).
This approach is heavily pushed in Agile, where there will be backlog grooming, Spring Reviews, Retrospectives and Spring Planning - but not much in the way of plans. Personally I’d say if you don’t have a plan then you don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s clearly a matter of balance (even Agile has Sprint and Release plans for example.
No point in pumping out 100s of pages of shelfware planning documents vs something much leaner and thus more easily communicated and understood, and thus bought into, by all stakeholders, then easier to evolve it when things inevitably change. I have fallen into the trap in the past of making overly-detailed plans that I thought were a work of art, but were out of date even when I was making them.
Top tip: using planning horizons/management by stages so that you only have the near future in detail, and further away more schemetically planned only - helps strike the balance. Saving Changes...
You have to keep in mind the subtlety between planning something and having a plan. Saving Changes...
Christopher GrassmuckDelivery Executive| Trillion Technology SolutionsWinchester, Va, United States
Mike Tyson claimed “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. Guess what, a good PM has a plan to mitigate and/or respond to the punch in the mouth. Remember, it's not a single plan, it's a group of plans. A PM has to look out over the horizon and be prepared and keep his team prepared. Saving Changes...
